Undergraduate program

Background

Santa Clara University (SCU) was founded as Santa Clara College on March 19, 1851 and began offering courses in commercial subjects in 1854. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in the west.

Santa Clara College began offering degrees in accounting in 1923 as part of the College of Business Administration. The College of Business was accredited in 1953. The undergraduate accounting program received a separate accreditation from the AACSB in 1995. Presently we are one of only five accounting programs accredited by the AACSB in the State of California.

Majors offered through the Accounting Department

All SCU business students are required to declare a major in a specialty field of study. The accounting department offers two majors for undergraduates: the Accounting major and the Accounting and Information Systems (A&IS) major. The A&IS major is jointly offered with the OMIS Department.

Students majoring in both Accounting and A&IS will take courses that prepare them for professional examinations that are part of the certification procedures that lead to designation as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or Certified Management Accountant (CMA). All SCU Accounting and A&IS majors graduate with enough accounting and business units to qualify for the CPA exam in California under Pathway 1. Students who plan to take the CPA exam in other states or who wish to take the CPA exam in California under Pathway 2 may need to take additional courses. For more information about the CPA exam, visit our FAQ page.

Curriculum

All SCU business students must complete both the University core curriculum requirements and the College of Business core requirements. The College of Business core requirements include two accounting courses: ACTG 11 and ACTG 12. We recommend that Accounting and A&IS majors complete ACTG 11 and 12 by the end of their sophomore year.

In addition to University and College of Business core requirements, accounting majors and A&IS majors must take several upper division accounting and/or OMIS courses.

Accounting Majors

Accounting majors who begin their college career in or after Fall 2007 must take a two-unit self-study accounting course (ACTG 20) and seven required accounting courses (ACTG 130, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136, and 138).

Our department offers the following courses for undergraduate students:

ACTG 11 – Introduction to Financial Accounting (4 units)

ACTG 12 – Introduction to Managerial Accounting (4 units)

ACTG 20 – Reporting Financial Transactions (2 units)

ACTG 130 – Intermediate Financial Accounting I (5 units)

ACTG 131 – Intermediate Financial Accounting II (5 units)

ACTG 132 – Advanced Financial Accounting (5 units)

ACTG 134 – Accounting Information Systems (5 units)

ACTG 135 – Auditing (5 units) • ACTG 136 – Cost Accounting (5 units)

ACTG 138 – Tax Planning and Business Decisions (5 units)

ACTG 140 – Government and Non-Profit Accounting (3 units)

ACTG 142 – Commercial Law (3 units)

ACTG 150 – Forensic Accounting (5 units)

ACTG 151 – Financial Statement Analysis (5 units)

ACTG 152 – International Accounting (5 units)

ACTG 161 – Junior Business Seminar I (2 units)

ACTG 162 – Junior Business Seminar II (2 units)

ACTG 171 – Senior Business Seminar I (2 units)

ACTG 172 – Senior Business Seminar II (2 units)

ACTG 194 – Peer Educator in Accounting (various units)

ACTG 197 – Accounting Case Presentation (2 units)

ACTG 198 – Accounting Internship (various units)

ACTG 199 – Independent Study (various units)

In addition, the OMIS department offers the following courses for A&IS majors:

OMIS 30 – Structured Programming

OMIS 31 – Business Applications Programming

OMIS 105 – Data Management Systems

OMIS 106 – Systems Analysis and Design

OMIS 111 – Computer Communications Systems

OMIS 113 – Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence

OMIS 135 – Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

OMIS 150 – Financial Information Systems

Interaction with Study Abroad Programs

Many SCU accounting majors and A&IS majors participate in semester study abroad programs. Our program is designed to allow Accounting and A&IS majors to study abroad during the fall quarter of their junior year without falling behind in their required upper division accounting classes. We recommend that study abroad students take ACTG 130 (Intermediate Accounting I) in the winter quarter of their junior year.